Silence Therapeutics raises $58 million to advance R&D

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Dive Brief:

UK-based Silence is a biotechnology company that's focused on therapeutics that interfere with RNA molecules. On Wednesday, the company announced that it had raised $58 million for R&D.

Silence is focused on developing a drug candidate for pancreatic cancer.

Its shares are trading at $3.56.

Dive Insight:

UK-based biotech Silence Therapeutics is exclusively focused on creating a genetic medicine platform based on RNA interference. The major application of this RNAi technology is oncology; however, Silence also has licensing agreements with several companies, including Quark.

In addition to pancreatic cancer, which is furthest along in development (phase IIa), Silence also has development programs focused on head and neck cancers. It also has a program focused on developing a therapy for pulmonary hypertension.

The recent infusion of cash is largely driven by increased confidence in Silence based on positive phase IIa results for its pancreatic RNAi therapy.